"I think the English of Shakespeare's time requires 'is he.'" Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 246.

P. 489. (143)

"which who knows how that may turn back to my advancement ?”

This sentence is not rendered less obscure by the alteration of Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector; "which who knows how that may turn luck to my advancement?"-Mr. W. N. Lettsom (Preface to Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. p. xliv.) proposes "which who knows but luck may turn to my advancement ?"

This word, in the folio, forms part of the preceding speech.—Theobald restored it to its right place.

Not in the folio.-See the Article on the "Omission of repeated Words" in Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 141-2: but the present addition was made long before Walker's time, by Theobald.

P. 491. (148)

"would make her sainted spirit

Again possess her corpse, and on this stage —

Where we offend her now-appear soul-vex'd,
And begin, 'Why to me?" "

The folio has "(Where we Offendors now appeare) Soule-vert," &c.—This passage has been amended in various ways. I adopt the alteration of Theobald, which is by no means violent, and which connects (as is evidently required) the word "appear" with "sainted spirit." (A parenthesis wrongly marked is not unfrequent in the folio.)-1863. I subjoin Theobald's note; ""Tis obvious that the grammar is defective; and the sense consequently wants supporting. The slight change I have made cures both; and surely 'tis an improvement to the sentiment for the king to say, that Paulina and he offended his dead wife's ghost with the subject of a second match, rather than in general terms to call themselves offenders, sinners.”

So the third folio.-The earlier folios have "She had just such cause" (an error originally occasioned by the word "such" in the line immediately above)

Hanmer gives (and happily enough)" Stars, very stars."

"Cleo. Good madame, I haue done.

Paul. Yet if my Lord will marry," &c.—

Rowe printed "Cleo. Good madam, pray, have done."-The present regulation was made by Capell.

P. 493. (152)

66

In contradiction to Warburton's note, "Grave for epitaph," Edwards observes; Thy grave means- -thy beauties, which are buried in the grave; the continent for the contents."-Hanmer substitutes "thy graces;" and the Ms. Corrector of Lord Ellesmere's folio "thy grace."

Hanmer prints "This is such a creature.”—On "creature" pronounced as a trisyllable see Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 20, where he considers the word as such in the present passage, and would alter "This is" to the contracted form "This', which the folio has in Measure for Measure, act v.

sc. 1.

P. 493. (154) "Prithee, no more; cease; thou know'sť"

Hanmer omits" cease."-Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 116) says, "Perhaps 'Pray, no more ;' &c."-"Here," observes Mr. W. N. Lettsom, "is an evident jumble of two genuine readings, one the correction of the other; 'Prithee, no more,' and 'I prithee, cease.'"

Altered in the second folio to "as friend."-Other alterations have been proposed; "and friend,” “a friend,” “to friend," "at friends."

"Perdita is here transformed into a Moor; and although this play, among others, affords the most unequivocal proofs of Shakespeare's want of skill in the science of geography, it is at least possible that an error of the press has substituted Libya for Lydia or Lycia." Douce.

Altered to "draw it" by Hanmer, and to "show it" by Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector, very needlessly.

Here the old eds. have "swownded" and "swounded:" but see note 93.

Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 116) says, "colours,' surely."

But kill'd itself much sooner."

Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 28) proposes

66 no sorrow but

It kill'd itself much sooner.”

Capell prints

66 no sorrow, sir,

But kill'd," &c.

P. 503. (165)

Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already—
What was he that did make it?"

Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector gives

"Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already

I am but dead, stone looking upon stone.
What was he," &c.;

on which additional line see Blackwood's Magazine for August 1853, p. 202, Mr. Singer's Shakespeare Vindicated, p. 80, and my Few Notes, &c. p. 80; nor am I disposed to retract or modify what I have said concerning that line in the last-mentioned publication, notwithstanding its genuineness has been since asserted both by a critic in this country and by one in America.—1863. In the sec. ed. of his Shakespeare Mr. Collier has inserted the Ms. Corrector's "I am but dead, stone looking upon stone," with the following note; "This most beautiful and lost line is recovered from the corr. fo. 1632. The Rev. Mr. Dyce, in his 'Few Notes,' p. 81, takes the singular objection that although

the new line at first appeared to him so exactly in the style of Shakespeare, that, like Mr. Collier, he felt thankful that it had been furnished;' yet presently afterwards he found that it was 'too Shakespearian;' that is to say, that the poet could not have written it, because it was so very much in his style. This is strange logic even for a commentator. Mr. Singer (who introduces his own absurd punctuation) complains with Mr. Dyce that Shakespeare would 'not so soon have repeated himself,' and then a passage is quoted and marked with italic type, in which Shakespeare repeats himself, not, as here at a distance, but within four lines. So much for fact, as well as logic. Mr. Dyce at last is obliged to admit that the line is ingeniously constructed,' having before said that it is 'exactly in the style of Shakespeare.' Let others try their hands at lines 'exactly in the style of Shakespeare,' where it is allowed on all sides that something is wanted; and if they succeed, we will venture to say they will not give us lines in the least degree resembling that which Mr. Singer has in this place furnished. Does Mr. Dyce (and we fearlessly appeal to him as a man of taste and experience) think Mr. Singer's line 'exactly in the style of Shakespeare,' either in measure or meaning? As to the line supplying the hiatus in the corr. fo. 1632, we are more than content to have recovered it, and it must now ever stand as part of the text of our great dramatist: in the German edition, to which we have so often with pleasure referred, it is thus well rendered," &c.

As Mr. Collier cannot bring himself to quote fairly any thing I have written, I subjoin that portion of my Few Notes, &c. which touches on the line in question;

"Mr. Collier is mistaken in saying that Warburton considered the text as defective: Warburton's note runs thus; The sentence complete is,

but that, methinks, already

I converse with the dead :'

But there his passion made him break off.

Still, there is room to suspect that something has dropt out: and, on first reading the new line,

'I am but dead, stone looking upon stone,'

it appeared to me so exactly in the style of Shakespeare, that, like Mr. Collier, I felt thankful that it had been furnished.' But presently I found that it I was too Shakespearian.

"Only a few speeches before, Leontes has exclaimed;

'O, thus she stood,

Even with such life of majesty,-warm life,
As now it coldly stands,-when first I woo'd her!

I am asham'd: does not the stone rebuke me

For being more stone than it?-O royal piece,
There's magic in thy majesty; which has
My evils conjur'd to remembrance, and

From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee!

Now, which is the greater probability ?—that Shakespeare (whose variety of expression was inexhaustible) repeated himself in the line,

'I am but dead, stone looking upon stone'?

or that a reviser of the play (with an eye to the passage just cited) ingeniously constructed the said line, to fill up a supposed lacuna? The answer is obvious." p. 81.

It is to the speech adduced in the above extract that Mr. Collier alludes when he says; "a passage is quoted, and marked with italic type, in which Shakespeare repeats himself, not, as here at a distance, but within four lines." But that passage contains no offensive repetition, like the one of which Mr. Singer and I" complain;" for there Leontes does not twice say that he is turned to stone ;-in the concluding line, "Standing like stone with thee," he speaks of his daughter.

Has been altered by Rowe (in his sec. ed.) to " As we were mock'd with art,” and by Capell to "And we are," &c.-Steevens remarks that the alteration "were" has been made " unnecessarily," he thinks, "considering the loose grammar of Shakespeare's age."

Here the folio has merely "This;" for which, with Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 81), I substitute "This'," the contraction of" This is," which the folio gives in Measure for Measure, act v. sc. 1. "We might indeed," says Walker (ibid.), "read This is' without any violation of metre; but I prefer the other. For the construction, 'whom heavens directing,' &c. one may compare Venus and Adonis, st. clxxiii.;

6

as the snail, whose tender horns being bit, Shrinks backward in his shelly cave with pain.’

Cymbeline, iv. 2, I think;

'no, nor

The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
Out-sweeten'd not thy breath.'

Compare, too, Tempest, i. 2;

'Some food we had, and some fresh water, which [that]

A noble Neapolitan Gonzalo,

Out of his charity,-who being then appointed

Master of this design,—did give us,' &c.